The Jaredites

In the story of the Jaredites in the Book of Mormon we have very little information about Jared and his family before their departure.  Who was their genealogy?  Who taught them the gospel? When did they travel to the promised land?  We know that they came forth “from the great tower” when people were “scattered upon all the face of the earth” (Ether 1:33).  Sometime after the flood, the descendants of Noah built the tower of Babel and the Lord did “scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”  It’s not clear how long had passed since the flood or who was still alive from Noah and his sons, but the verse after this description gives “the generations of Shem” (Genesis 11:9-10).  It is I think very likely that Shem, who lived 500 years after the flood, was still alive.  He who was a “great high priest” may have been the one who taught Jared and the brother of Jared the gospel (Doctrine and Covenants 138:41).  Obviously they came through the lineage of one of the sons of Noah, but we don’t know which one.  Surely the Jaredites had the Priesthood, and so they likely weren’t descendants of Ham, leaving Shem and Japheth as the possibilities.    

               There are a couple of signs in the book of Ether that do link them back to their ancestors.  The name Jared is of course an Old Testament name, and he was a direct ancestor of Jared since Jared was the great-great grandfather of Noah (and father of Enoch).  We know that this Jared was “two hundred years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam, who also blessed him,” so presumably he was a righteous man and the one Jared of the book of Ether was named after.  One of sons of Corihor in the book of Ether was named Noah (see Ether 7:14), likely after his ancestor Noah (unfortunately he didn’t do a very good job of living  life like Noah).  Another of the Jaredites was named Seth who was a descendant of Jared, and so he too was likely named after their Biblical ancestor (Ether 11:9).  Unfortunately Moroni decided not to give us “the full account” and did not “write those things which transpired from the days of Adam” until the time of Jared, and so we do not have any specific genealogy.  But we do know that the people of Jared had a record that contained their history back to Adam, and so clearly the Jaredites kept that record throughout their history and they knew of their ancestors back to Adam (Ether 1:3-5).  Though our record is pretty sparse, we are blessed to have the account that we do of the Jaredites, particularly the testimony of the brother of Jared when he was visited by the Savior.  With all that we don’t know about where the Jaredites came from, we do know that the words that Christ said to them are the same He would say to us: “Behold, I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people. Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son. In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name” (Ether 3:14).